In 'Synecdoche, New York' , what is the significance of choosing the play 'Death of a Salesman'?
The protagonist, Philip Hoffman, is directing the play 'Death of a Salesman' with a twist. He is casting young actors as the characters of Willy and his wife. From my understanding, he is doing this to portray how young people are facing the same dilemmas of rejection and probably failure much earlier in today's life. Is there some other reason the director/writer of the movie Charlie Kaufman has used this play in this movie?
Best Answer
My interpretation of Hoffman's character Caden is that he is struggling with the purpose and apparent futility of life and is trying to understand it, to capture the essence of life in a single piece of art. His attempts become bloated and spiral out of control because he is trying to explain the unexplainable.
Seems to me he is tackling the same problem with his interpretation of Death of a Salesman. I think it is less of a statement on today's society being harder for younger people than it used to, and more about the universality of struggle. Caden views everybody, young and old, as rocketing towards death and insists they should find meaning in their lives before they die.
There are also a few parallels between Salesman and Synecdoche, mainly in their leading characters. I think Willy and Caden are both a little deluded; they are not as good at what they do as they want to believe. As both approach the end of their lives they worry that they haven't made much of an impact. Willy is so heavily invested in his job that he is broken when he is fired, and similarly Caden so obsessively pursues the meaning of life in his play that he doesn't end up creating anything meaningful. However, the similarities between the two works don't run much deeper than that.
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What is the message of synecdoche New York?
Synecdoche, New York is a film that concerns itself with examining solipsism, and in disposing of the harmful concept of \u201cThe Other\u201d. Solipsism is the belief that only one's own mind is certain to exist; that one's perception of reality and events is the only certainty, the only truth.What happens to Caden in the final scene of synecdoche NY?
The film's final scene shows an elderly, exhausted Caden, moving through the lonely ruins of his making until he finally finds a place to rest his head. And yet even in this life, death comes as a running out of time.Why is it called synecdoche New York?
The film's title is a play on Schenectady, New York, where much of the film is set, and the concept of synecdoche, wherein a part of something represents the whole or vice versa.Is Synecdoche New York sad?
Synecdoche, New York (Sony Pictures Classics) is a very sad movie for two reasons. First off, the story, about a theater director who's sucked into the vortex of his own impossible artistic ambitions, is unremittingly bleak, making for one of the most depressing nondocumentary films you're likely to see, well, ever.I.N \
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